Audio-Laboratory-Based Evaluative Orthography as a Diagnostic Approach for Errors in Writing Arabic Texts

Abstract

This study aimed to identify orthographic errors based on the Qawāʿid Khamsah, determine the rules most frequently associated with errors, and develop the OEA-Lab Model (Audio-Laboratory-Based Evaluative Orthography Model). A pre-experimental, one-group pretest–posttest design was employed with 25 Arabic Language Education students, who completed 337 lexical items presented through 29 audio files covering Hamzah, Alif, Ḥażf, Ziyādah, and Waṣl-Faṣl. The mean score increased from 83.28 to 87.03 on the posttest. Because the difference scores deviated significantly from normality (Shapiro–Wilk W = 0.904, p = .023), the Wilcoxon signed-rank test was used to examine the difference between pretest and posttest scores.  which indicated a statistically significant improvement, Z = −4.382, p < 0.001, with a large effect size, r = 0.619, and all 25 participants demonstrated improvement. Internal consistency of the 337 dichotomously scored items was acceptable, with KR-20 = 0.853 (pretest) and 0.841 (posttest). The highest pretest error rate occurred in Ziyādah (Hāʾ Saktah), at 31.45%, followed by Hamzah, at 14.14%. However, in terms of the proportion of all errors, Hamzah accounted for the largest share (35.13%). The findings suggest that diagnostically structured, audio-based dictation, rather than text copying, can produce measurable improvements in orthographic accuracy, positioning imlāʾ as a diagnostic-remedial instrument.